Ullia's Legacy Arc
Goals Ok, the idea. Basically I'm looking to do 2 things with this. # Involve the role-playing minorities, Gallente and Caldari. We need to start drawing them in by using the the more "racially accessible" events such as the Vitoc cure. # Provide the fun. It has to be done without intruding on prime fiction. Background So far in the arc we have had a Caldari scientist go rogue with the insorum, and he ultimately chose to run to the Ushra'Khan for help. Both the CVA/AM and CAIN clamoured to stop him, as did the Blood Raiders. CAIN succeeded in killing Dr Ullia Hnolku but failed to secure either his corpse or cargo. Coreli Corporation got the body and are currently attempting to lay him to rest somewhere. The Caldari are apparently not interested as Dr Hnolku is a dead traitor. Coreli have also attempted to replicate the cure by trying to extract it from the frozen blood taken off the recovered body. They followed up with a statement of failure, but so far they are the leading Gallente group making an effort. The Blood Raider faction still hold Ullia's wife Mikimi Hnolku hostage, and no one knows how to find her. From a sample found on her when she was captured, the Blood Raiders have mass produced an aerosol form of the cure and deployed it as a weapon to ignite the Mabnen uprising. There is speculation that it included some sort of psychotropic drug to create the blood bath frenzy, but CCP have made no comment on that. Ushra'Khan hold a primitive sample of the cure, recovered from the wreckage of Dr Hnolku's ship. We have made several attempts to find a research partner (at CCP's suggestion) but no Minmatar group has reciprocated and so we're still left with a crate doing nothing. So, we need to give it another push. I am proposing that the Ushra'Khan attempt to attract the interest of Gallente industry or government, as the Minmatar establishment apparently isn't going to risk it politically. The problem is that we are regarded by half the galaxy as terrorists and respectable people don't deal with terrorists. So, we need a middleman. I suggest that Coreli Corporation be our representatives to the Gallente. They are sympatheic to our cause and as far as I know law abiding. This gives Coreli some legitimacy to act as a bridge between groups. Motivations The big question is why would the Gallente want to help Ushra? Four reasons I think: # Humanitarian. The Vitoc method creates great suffering and so it can be opposed morally. # Money. There's a lot of money in pharmaceuticals, and who knows the business potential for the cure? We don't, because we're just a load of muscle-heads with a dream. We can't be expected to think that far ahead. Cure now, reality later! What I'm saying is, if we hand it over to someone who isn't as interested in 'doing the right thing' as we thought they were, then it could mean more role-playing scenarios down the line. # Cold War. Destroying the Vitoc method would weaken the Amarr Empire, and as there is a cold war brewing the Gallente will be looking for an edge. # Pride. Helping us is one in the eye for the Caldari, and what self respecting Gallente patriot wouldn't want to snub the Caldari? For the Caldari, motivation and goals are very simple. Insorum is a product of Caldari research and it needs to be protected and properly controlled. They should leap at any chance to recover data or samples or to just stop anyone else from getting their hands on it. The same goes for the Amarr: they have nothing to gain and everythng to lose if Insorum sees the light of day. For us the obvious reverse. We want it bad. Events So, how could it work? I think we could role-play out several events around this, so here are some ideas: Part 1 Data Drop. The capture the flag event we've already planned. See http://www.eve-wiki.com/index.php?title=Hnolku_legacy_Part_1 This is a nice intro to introduce Coreli and to get things moving again. At the end of the event people will have remembered where things left off. Part 2 Rendezvous with Coreli in low security space. A 'secret' meeting where Ushra begins with talks with Coreli and trades some initial data on their research into the Mabnen blood samples. This would be a setting the scene event which is essentially us scoping them out in-character to see if they are the people we need. I think we may want to arrange for either Amarrian or Caldari presence to 'leak' the rumour on IGS. My initial thought is for a member from each party to arrive in either an industrial or slow cruiser to suggest a 'summit venue' taking place on board. The opposition's goal could be to knock out the delegation ship. Part 3 A similar event for the Amarr and Caldari summit: security talks on the suspicious activities for possible security force collaboration? Part 4 Technology trade. We make a delivery of research materials and findings from our own efforts to develop the prototype. The intention is to give Coreli a basis to go door knocking at the Gallente institutions, as well to raise their profile. Naturally the time and location, perhaps the route of the rendezvous could be leaked to those pesky Amarr/Caldari security folks. If the convoy is knocked out we could repeat this event. Part 5 Counter-espionage. Once the convoy has made it, what's to stop a Caldari spoiler raid attempting to seize the research data? Maybe an agent is detected once he has the data and needs to be killed before he gets it back to Caldari space. Part 6 Mikimi Hnolku. According to agent searches Mikimi Hnolku is in Oyonata, but of course that's game mechanics rather than plot. Her whereabouts are unknown, we just know that the Blood Raiders have her. We could run an event where a rumour leaks out to the capsuleer groups sparking a fresh search. We naturally won't find her, but it would show that groups are still looking for her. Part 7 Who knows? We could leave it there, run more events in the future or add other things earlier on in the arc. It's a work in progress! At the end of all that, we have given all races involvement in a major story arc and hopefully given the Caldari/Gallente role-players something to get excited about. We also haven't made any lasting change to the prime fiction because we are still trying to research the cure sample, we just gave it a broader scope. If this lot is going to be a success it needs out-of-character co-operation between all parties involved, which will be a headache at times. We also need to heavily self-publicise it. Submissions for the in-game news are a must, if we get it on there the audience grows massively, and it puts the arc back in the spotlight. IGS announcements should be co-ordinated to show off all angles of it. We also need to push the devs directly, sending emails explaining what we are doing and where we want it to go. If it steps on their toes (breaking the story arc) they won't take kindly to it. Our public presentation has to show that it's an organised effort and not dismissed as meta-gaming. Players not involved in the planning will seize on inconsistencies so it has to be well thought out at every point. And we are not going to leave it hanging. Needless to say, we don't want a large number of people reading this section as it can be derailed by too much fore-knowledge and too many hands pulling in different directions. So if you bring someone in on this choose them carefully.